An unexpected break in the action

I'm not going to lie, yesterday was not my favorite day. But tomorrow may just top it in its craptastickness.

It seems as though Stevie's heart condition--the screaming hydra-Medusa pathway--is back, and surgery is scheduled tomorrow. Three days before the moving truck is scheduled to arrive, we discovered that the WPW has returned and must be dealt with immediately.

It sort of puts things into perspective.

Things are going to get packed that shouldn't. Things are going to be disorganized for a while. I'm going to forget something somewhere, and I'll never get to all of those things on my To Do List.

Oh well.

Somehow things just got a little quieter around here just when it should be crunch time.

Mom's Breakfast Club

In the midst of all of the packing, I took a fast break. Or rather, a breakfast with my friends.

Kellogg treated us to a breakfast last week, and it certainly was a treat. I made several of the recipes on their website, and seven friends shared a morning talking. Mostly about how crazy our mornings are even when we’re not in the midst of a move, and how no one ever raves about how smoothly morning routines are when you’re constantly on the go. We discussed nutrition and food in general and received a lot of great tips from Kellogg and pretty awesome goody bags as well.

You can read about all of their tips here, but a couple highlights from our party included:

~If your child doesn’t like milk, try a granola parfait with lowfat yogurt and fresh fruit. This is one of Amy’s favorites.

~While breakfast may be the most important meal of the day, we often have cereal after dinner on nights when we ate early and the kids are still looking for something substantial and nutritious to eat.

~For a quick on the go breakfast, don’t discount muffins. If you make them yourself, you can control what goes in them. These blueberry-bran were particularly yummy.

So love your cereal! We sure did.

(More photos to follow after I resolve my never-ending camera issues. With yet another new camera. With new issues.)

Tips to share

New article up on Whoa Momma with tips on preventing MRSA.

See? I am still working.

Tampa friends: If my house is nominated, I will hunt you down like a dogdown

Do you know of a house with a decorating theme gone wild? A room with an overboard motif or idea carried too far? A hobby or collection that has taken over?

If you know someone in need of a style intervention, you can anonymously nominate them and their room run awry for a surprise makeover.

The Style Network show, “Tacky House,” starring celebrity designer Thom Filicia, is looking for Tampa area rooms to feature on upcoming episodes. Last season, the design team tackled attacking leopard prints, overgrown florals and Hawaii Five-No!

For more information, email the show at castingfortv@yahoo.com, and help streamline someone’s style.

(Pick a friend with a crazy decorating-style but with a good sense of humor, too.)

When do the handprints on the walls and juice box stains on the carpet get moved in?

I am standing here in the new house. Standing, because there is no place to sit yet.

It is remarkably empty, and the quiet isn't something I'm used to nor particularly like all that much.

As I spend a few hours here getting things ready like phones, cable and locks changed--I'm trying to get to know the house. There's things that I love--the double oven that looks as though it's never been used, the plantation shutters on every window that I like to open to let in more light, and all of the beautiful trees that frame the backyard.

I still hate the paint colors, but that's an easy fix scheduled for next week, and soon there will be more white noise coming from the televisions and the phone ringing. The kids are going to absolutely love all of the places they can spread out to play--it is party ready.

But the biggest flaw I realize as my footsteps echo around the walls, is that it needs to be filled up with kids. Our kids. We need to complete this move and get up here because this isn't going to be a home until they get here and we're in making new messes together.

We pause in the moving preparations to meet "Jessica"

Of the thousands of details I have taken on to get our move off smoothly in less than a month, number 407 was to bring Jingle to the vet. We were woefully behind on shots, and I needed to get her a prescription for happy pills for our final departure/long ass drive out of Tampa.

So while we had a showing on the house (yay!) I packed Jingle and Jess up, and we headed to the vet.

This wasn't supposed to be a big deal in the grand scheme of things--Jingle's a pretty good dog (now) and it was really just a check-up. She was doing just fine until the nurse went to take her paw to draw blood, and then Jingle turned into this ferocious beast which required 3 aides, a muzzle and then a trip to the back room where they mysteriously injected the proper medicines. It was all surprisingly upsetting.

As we were leaving, standing by to pay a very high fee for such trouble, another dog came out of another room. A miniature schnauzer started yipping and yapping annoyingly. Jessie walked over to him, but his owner kind of freaked and yelled, 'He's not used to little kids!" and Jessie backed away.

The woman and her little dog left, barking the entire time before urinating on the floor of the waiting room, and I looked down at Jessie who had an uncharacteristic frown on her sweet face. She said, "I just wanted to pet that dog."

I hugged her and explained that some dogs get too scared if they don't know people.

She just looked at me and said sadly, "But I'm Jessica."

I think she's going to have a lot of new friends in Tennessee.

My weekend

I have signed a treaty that does not allow me to post any pictures, names or details of my farewell weekend away with the girls, but I think I would not be in violation of the terms if I just mention the following:

1.) Be careful of past goofy photographs as they may just end up on 2 cases of wine bottles.

2.) Two days is too short, but you can fit in 10 years worth of laughter in a weekend, especially when prompted with the contents of UrbanDictionary.com.

3.) More research is needed on the precise pudding shot technique as opposed to the Jello variety.

4.) Champagne toasts taste sweeter on the beach.

5.) I have the best friends in the whole wide world.